I normally put in a few squash and zucchini in around the end of July. Garlic, broccoli, and cabbage will go in probably around mid Sept.

Cilantro and oregano seem to work better for me if I seed them in the late fall for a spring crop. Unless we have an extremely cold winter, they should be up and running as soon as it starts warming next year.

Hyere's a link to a thread from a couple of years ago with lots of info. Fall garden

Megan,

Fall gardening is wonderful, but if July and August heat up, you really have to keep an eye on young fall plants and keep their soil moist because they will not yet have had time to develop root systems that run deep and wide. Other than that, it is a cinch. For the most part, the cabbage loopers/imported cabbage worms that can decimate all the brassica crop foliage are non-exist most years in the fall, which makes those crops a lot easier to raise. Also, there are some cool-season crops (carrots and beets come to mind) that prefer to sprout in warm soil/weather and grow to maturity in cooler soil/weather, so planting them for fall is the perfect solution. Tomatoes and sweet peppers that often slow down production in the heat will thrive in cooler temperatures of late summer and autumn. Some crops, like spinach, collards and kale, survive and thrive even well into the new year, unless we have extra-cold weather very early.

Do you know the date of your average first autumn freeze? That's important to keep in mind so you can cover up tender vegetation when the first freeze (or frost) is expected. Often we get a first freeze that lasts a night or two and then have 4-6 weeks more of really mild weather, so if you can get tender vegetation of warm-season plants through that first cold night or two, you might be able to keep those plants going in your garden for another month or more.

Also, if you know the date of your average first frost, you can count back roughly 4 months and begin planting your warm-season fall crops then.

Here's a map showing average first autumn frost dates in Oklahoma:

Average First Fall Freeze Dates

I don't necessarily plant by a calendar. I usually plant by whatever feels right, and what feels right on, let's say July 1st, would be entirely different if our high temperatures are running in the low 100s at that time versus the low 90s, so it helps to be a bit flexible and prepare to go with the flow a bit since we cannot make the weather cooperate with us if it doesn't want to. The same thing is even more true in August. I do try to get all the warm-season crops for fall planted in July most years, and cooler season stuff can wait until August-October if the weather is favorable. While OSU recommends an August planting for fall bush beans, I have found I get better yields if I plant them at the end of July here in my specific location. but that's the sort of thing you mostly will learn through trial and error.

Having said the above, here's the OSU Fall Garden Planning Guide with their recommended planting dates. The dates usually are given as a range of dates, with the first date given being for folks in far NW OK and the last date given being for folks in far SE OK (in spring, the dates are the opposite). The rest of us just pick a planting date somewhere in between the two. If you want to grow something that is not on the list, just ask us about it and the odds are that somebody here grows the same thing and can tell you when they normally plant it.

OSU Fall Gardening Guide

I don't always follow the dates in this guide (ha ha, sometimes I barely follow them at all), but they are a good starting point.

If I can get away with it, for example, I like to plant fall tomatoes earlier than OSU recommends in mild years, and sometimes a bit later than they recommend in very hot, dry years. I'm starting fall tomato seeds inside in paper cups today, but I also bought a few fall tomato plants at local stores yesterday because, well, why not? There those little plants sat, looking like sad little orphans hoping for a good home, so I had to adopt a couple of them. When I do that, I try to chose containers that have 2 or 3 plants in one container and then when I get them home, I separate them into individual containers and grow them on for a couple more weeks to let them get over the root disturbance caused by separating the plants from one another. Then I plant them. So, while it sounds too early to buy fall tomatoes, buying them when they first hit the stores works for me, and it allows me to buy them while they are fresh and healthy, and not yet infected with disease or full of pests. Sitting on garden center shelves in the hot summer sun is hard on those young tomato plants, and I'd rather have my chosen plants at our house getting careful attention than sitting on the store shelves, aging and burning up in the heat, and having pests flock from one plant to another. It isn't necessarily the fault of the stores----hot weather is just hard on small plants in pots.

Good luck with your fall garden and don't be afraid to ask questions. We discuss planting the fall garden often here, and keeping an eye on who's doing what will help you learn sort of what to plant in what order. I'm really far south, so most of the time anyone more than 50-75 miles north of me should be planting earlier than me, so if you see me talking about planting fall beans or whatever, that's your clue that yours already should be in the ground. In that case, just hurry up and plant them and pretend you planted them on time...and next year you'll remember and plant them earlier.

Try to have fun with it. Summer heat is brutal but plants will thrive with careful attention from their gardener.

Dawn